It's a year since Lightworks for Windows (version 11.00) was launched, Now, Version 11.1 is released, dropping HASP, and with a free 30 day Pro trial. If you found Lightworks hard to install or difficult to use with your media - now's the time to give it another try. Loads of other new features too

On May 28th this year, Lightworks 11.1 is launched. This has some major upgrades (detailed below) as well as easier installation and registration. Much to everyone's relief, it's dropped the HASP licensing scheme that was pretty unpopular with everyone, as it was snarky and very difficult to administer.

The Lightworks team says they hope that anyone who was discouraged by HASP issues will come back and try Lightworks without it. It is likely to be a much better experience!

Aside from the new features and functionality (detailed below), new users will be able to try the Pro version for a 30 day trial period. This will allow them to try Lightworks with their own camera material rather than having to transcode. At the end of the 30 day trial, they can either choose to stay with Pro or downgrade to the Free version.

Lightworks Pro is still $60/€50/£40 per year

New system

To use the new licensing system, users sign into the application using their Lightworks Username and Password (an internet connection MUST be present on the system for this). Any existing licenses still to expire on the current release of lightworks will be honoured in the new ELS system. Users simply have to sign into the new version entering their Username and Password and their existing license(s) will appear in the list for them to activate (Pro and Avid DNxHD).

The new Windows release is another important milestone for Lightworks, and with a much better first-user experience, as well as a free 30 day Lightworks Pro trial, this is a good time to get familiar with this Hollywood-strength software.

Here are the new features in version 11.1 in full:

Added support for native MP4/H.264 MOV handling without using QuickTime Added entirely new EditShare Licensing System (ELS) which replaces Sentinel HASP Added initial 48fps file support Added 1080PsF 48fps as an output format Added support for Blackmagic I/O devices. Drivers 9.5 or higher are required (Pro version required) Added support for Windows 7 64bit with a separate installer (Pro version required) Added outlining support for the native titling effect (Pro version required) Added ability to let the user specify where media directories are stored using the disk manager tool (Pro version required) Added ability to let the user specify where local projects are stored using the Manage project spaces function (Pro version required) Added support for linking to audio rather than copying it locally Allowed MP4/AVCHD (MTS/M2TS) media to be imported into the Free version as transcode only Added support for linking to files through ALE import. The ALE must contain a valid media location Added support for automatic relinking to subclips when importing an AAF Added ability to enable/disable detection of split MXF files Added support for subclips without V tracks on AAF import/export Added ability to automatically flatten multi-level subclips to one level when exporting an AAF to Avid Added ability to read and interpret AVID markers as cue points in AVID AAFs Added new padlock icons to show the state of an edit when using shared projects (Green = Owned by you. Yellow = No owner. Red = Owned by another user) Added ability to drag a tile from out of the viewer copy icon (left click and drag) Added ability to drag single tiles to the New Edit, Bin and Sync Group tools Added ability to auto unjoin all clips when unjoining a cut point using the mouse. This is now the default behaviour, click the cogs icon and and set "Auto unjoin" to "No" to disable Added ability to bypass auto unjoin by holding down ALT before clicking a cut point